A simple guide for job networking on LinkedIn

Competition for advertised jobs is fierce. An advertised job posting can generate applications from thousands of potential candidates. Likewise, employers can cherry-pick potential employees. So how do you differentiate yourself while job hunting on LinkedIn? With all the tools for job seekers on the site you may get overwhelmed. Try this step-by-step process below and land a job on LinkedIn successfully!

To increase your chances of generating a response including an interview from a job posting, you should:
• Use LinkedIn to locate a company insider with a common connection (professional association, alum, etcetera)
• Request an informational interview to determine if the job is still available, name of the hiring manager, desired characteristics of the potential employee, and etcetera • Customize your resume and cover letter using this information
• Ask your company insider to deliver your resume and cover letter to the hiring manager

Next, I am going to provide you with the steps I used to apply for a position last week with a Fortune 100 company.

1. Go to http://www.linkedin.com/
2. Click on the “Advanced” link for the Search People field in the upper right region of your screen
3. Select “Located in or near:” for the Location field
4. Input a zip code for the Postal Code field and select the appropriate entry (such as 50 mi) for the Within field to ensure the location of the company is within this geographical range
5. Input the name of the company in the Company field and select Current in the box below this field
6. Click the Search button
7. If the search generated several results, you can limit the results by relationship by selecting the 1st Connections, 2nd Connections, and so on under the Relationship field.
8. Next view the profiles to locate current employees who have a common connection with you (professional association, alum, etcetera)
9. Contact these individuals to set up an informational interview. I have discovered that I generate better results by sending an email for the initial contact. The email I sent via LinkedIn listed the name of the position in the subject field and the body of my email included this:

“Hello X, I hope all is well. I’m a current X association member and want to set up a brief chat this upcoming week to discuss your company. I can be reached at 469-892-5092. Let me know what you think. Thanks-Kenrick”

The individual replied the next day listing the time frame we could talk. I replied by stating: “I prefer to have my resume/cover letter hand delivered to the hiring manager, if there is a match. Tomorrow after 1PM is good. Let me know what you think. Thanks-Kenrick”

10. We had our 10 minute discussion, I customized my resume and cover letter, and I sent it to my new connection for delivery to the hiring manager.

Whether or not you are invited to interview for the suitable positions you’ll apply for using this process; your response rate should be higher than if you just apply blindly to a job.
Hopefully you learned quite a bit reading this, good luck on your job hunt!

Retrieved June 1, 2010 from "New Grad Life"http://newgradlife.blogspot.com/2009/10/9-steps-to-linkedin-networking-for-job.html